WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The Crew-10 spaceship will go to the International Space Station in March 2025 and will bring the Starliner crew back on Earth, NASA has said.
“NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 now is targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to the International Space Station. The change gives NASA and SpaceX teams time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission,” the US space agency said on Tuesday.
US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov continue training for Crew-10 in NASA’s Houston training facility, it added.
The mission of Crew-9, consisting of US astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov, will return to Earth following the arrival of Crew-10.
The Starliner was launched on June 5 and docked to the ISS the next day. Wilmore and Williams were expected to stay in orbit for eight days and return to Earth on the same spacecraft.
However, the undocking of the Starliner was delayed several times due to problems with thrusters and discovered helium leaks. This has raised safety concerns, so Wilmore and Williams had to remain on the ISS.
(UNI)
